Zahraa Nasser
Overview
Zahraa Nasser spread hatred of Israel as a Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) activist. She is a supporter of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement.Nasser was an activist with the SJP chapter at Loyola University Chicago (SJP LUC) from 2013 to 2015. She served as its spokesperson in 2014.
Nasser also served as the chief justice of the LUC student government in the Spring semester of 2015, during which a BDS movement resolution to divest from Israeli companies was voted on and passed.
As of June 2023, Nasser’s LinkedIn profile said that she worked as a judicial law clerk for the U.S. District Courts since August 2022.
As of November 2022, Nasser’s LinkedIn said she passed the Illinois bar exam.
As of April 2024, Nasser’s LinkedIn said that she received a JD from the University of Notre Dame (Notre Dame) Law School in 2022. She graduated from LUC with a bachelor’s degree in business administration, finance and economics in 2015.
Also as of April 2024, Nasser’s LinkedIn said that she lived in the greater Chicago, Illinois area.
Hatred of Israel
On September 4, 2013, Nasser wrote an opinion piece published in the LUC student newspaper, the Loyola Phoenix, titled: “No end in sight as Palestinian struggle grows dire.” The author’s note indicated that Nasser was “a member of SJP LUC.”Nasser wrote: “Yet even with Secretary of State John Kerry bringing the media’s attention to the most evident apartheid state since South Africa, international laws continue to be broken and Palestinian rights continue to be violated by the Israeli government.”
Nasser continued: “Students for Justice in Palestine at Loyola University Chicago (SJP LUC) has worked for the past few years to bring awareness of the Palestine catastrophe to campus…As Bertrand Russell said at the International Conference of Parliamentarians, “The refugees have every right to the homeland from which they were driven, and the denial of this right is at the heart of the continuing conflict."
The term “Nakba” is generally translated as “catastrophe” in Arabic, referring to the outcome of the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. It is a term often used to delegitimize the creation of the State of Israel by defining it as a catastrophe.
The “right of return” is a Palestinian demand discredited as a means to eliminate Israel. International law mandates no absolute right of return and UN Resolution 194, which defined principles for “refugees wishing to return to their homes,” was unanimously rejected by Arab nations following the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.
On July 7, 2015, the day Snapchat posted a live story about Tel Aviv, Nasser wrote on Facebook: “Tel Aviv being featured today reveals their lack of culture (Arabic bread, shawarma, land ft.), their high levels of comfort (esp. for a country who claims to require billions for self-defense?), and the disguise of an Occupation. But what else is new?”
SJP Activism
Hillel International is a Jewish campus organization serving college students at 850 universities worldwide.
On September 19, 2014, following the incident at the Hillel event, SJP LUC was temporarily suspended pending a university investigation. SJP LUC was reportedly charged with violations of campus community standards, including not receiving prior permission to protest an event, interfering with the rights of other groups to hold an event, blocking campus entrances/exits, disrupting the function of a campus building, harassing members of other registered student organizations, and threatening other university members. The chapter received support from the Council of American Islamic Relations (CAIR) in managing its appeal.
On October 29, 2014, Nasser was quoted in a press release by Palestine Legal where she said: “It’s ironic that we’re being accused of being biased and discriminatory when the whole point of registering for Birthright was to show how discriminatory the Israeli government-funded program is. It’s like white people saying that they’re being discriminated against when people of color call out their white privilege.”
One way that anti-Israel activists spread anti-Semitism is to claim [00:06:46] that Jews, particularly Ashkenazi Jews, do not descend from the ancient Israelites. This claim alleges that Jews are white Europeans who lack a connection to the Land of Israel. The Khazar myth is a common version of this claim which is used to delegitimize [00:02:16] the existence of the modern State of Israel.
On October 30, 2014, an article in the anti-israel website Mondoweiss covered the incident quoted Nasser who was identified as “the spokesperson for SJP and Chief Justice of the student government’s judicial branch.”
The article said: “Nasser said the questioning served to challenge the notion of Birthright and raise awareness that Palestinians cannot return to their lands, ‘while people with absolutely no ties to the land can [return] just because they are Jewish.’”
Nasser continued: “A lot of the people signing up for the trip don’t realize that it’s racist because they don’t know the historical implications behind it.” She also said: “A lot of it was just challenging the students and raising awareness to show them ‘Look it’s great that you can visit this beautiful country. But that country once belonged to my ancestors and as a Palestinian I cannot return because I’m not Jewish.’”
On November 3, 2014, SJP LUC published a press release titled: “Loyola SJP found Responsible for 1 of 6 Charges, Sanctioned with Probation & Dialogue Training; Hillel Only Sanctioned with Administrative Training for Violating Similar Rules.”
In the press release, Nasser she called Birthright “an openly discriminatory program being publicized by a student organization whose leadership upholds viewpoints we find racist and antithetical to Palestinian rights.”
Supporting BDS
On March 16, 2014, Nasser promoted on Facebook the Loyola divestment campaign, sharing a graphic that said: “#LOYOLA DIVEST / FOR MORE INFO, VISIT SJPLOYOLA.COM.”On March 19, 2014, a divestment resolution passed the Loyola student government 26-0 with two abstentions, but was followed by a significant backlash from pro-Israel students on campus, which reportedly led the student government to hold a second hearing with both sides and revote the issue.
On March 24, 2014, the Loyola United Student Government Association held a second vote and passed the measure 12-10 with nine abstentions.
The resolution reportedly called on the university “to remove its holdings from eight companies that provide equipment to Israel for use in the West Bank.” Loyola University issued a statement following the vote stating that the students’ resolution did not reflect the university’s views and that Loyola University would not adopt it.
SJP
SJP is a student organization engaged in anti-Israel activity on North American college and university campuses.
The first chapter of SJP was founded in 2001 at the University of California at Berkeley by Professor Hatem Bazian. Bazian has spread classic anti-Semitism, reportedly promoted religious anti-Semitism and defended the Hamas terror group. In 2004, Bazian called for “intifada” in America.
SJP organizes anti-Israel campaigns, including running annual Israel Apartheid Weeks, often in collaboration with Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Muslim Students Association (MSA) campus chapters.
SJP has been a major force in pushing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on campuses. Chapters have initiated dozens of BDS resolutions in student governments, which have been proposed on or around Jewish holidays, a time when many Jewish students are off-campus.
SJP activists have reportedly physically assaulted, intimidated and harassed Jewish students, disrupted pro-Israel campus events and demonized pro-Israel campus organizations.
Chapters have often endorsed and campaigned for numerous terrorists and whitewashed terrorism.
BDS
The Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement was founded by Omar Barghouti in 2005 to challenge “international support for Israeli apartheid and settler-colonialism.” BDS is an allegedly “Palestinian-led movement,” although leading BDS activists have admitted [00:01:01] this is not true.
One of the demands of BDS includes [point 3] what is generally known as the “right of return,” a demand discredited as a way to eliminate Israel. Barghouti said the “right of return” is a means to “end Israel’s existence as a Jewish state.”
Barghouti has said that BDS “aims to turn Israel into a pariah state, as South Africa once was.”
In his activism, Barghouti has also said [00:05:55] regarding Israel: “Definitely, most definitely, we oppose a Jewish state in any part of Palestine. No…rational Palestinian, not a sellout Palestinian, will ever accept a Jewish state in Palestine.”
The movement has been linked to numerous terrorist organizations and received a public endorsement from Hamas in 2017.
BDS initiatives include calling on institutions and individuals to divest from Israeli-affiliated companies, promoting academic and cultural boycotts of Israel, and organizing anti-Israel rallies, protests and campaigns.
The movement’s most notable achievement has been the infiltration of university campuses through lobbying for “BDS resolutions.” In these cases, student governments and student groups, backed by their own anti-Israel members and affiliates, have proposed resolutions on some form of boycott of, or divestment from, Israel and Israeli-affiliated entities.
Boycott resolutions, although non-binding, have been passed by student governments on numerous North American campuses.
BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It has been noted that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitic incidents on campus. On one campus, when the student government debated a BDS resolution, reports emerged of violent threats against those opposing it.
Social Media and Weblinks
Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/zahraa.nasser [Deleted]Instagram:https://www.instagram.com/zahrnas/ [Private]
LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/zahraanasser/
Clubhouse:https://www.clubhouse.com/@znas
Photos & Screenshots
